Sunday, September 2, 2012

When I saw a recent photo of my grand-niece I was immediately taken with her innocence and gentleness as she reaches for the flowers. I thought "Hm, I would love to paint that some day."

As I have done in the past, it is the image of the child ... their purity ... that I love to try to capture. "Innocence", (on the left) is a watercolour that I painted a few years ago. It has become one of my biggest sellers in print form. (original is NFS).

Over the course of a few weeks in August I decided to tackle the painting of my grand-niece, this time using acrylics. After all, I thought, it's just canvas! I can always paint over it.

Working slowly and precisely, it became somewhat addictive as with the slightest brush stroke, and change of nuance of colour, the painting came to life. It was actually not as scary as I had thought!!

I got the painting to a point where I was very pleased with it, I thought, "Hm, now it's time to ask a professional". I sent an image of the painting to Karen Martin Sampson, an award winning portraiture artist, and asked her what she thought of my piece. I nervously waited for a response. Finally a very lengthy email came back. The painting still needed work. The ear had to be moved, the head needed more shape, the arm should be pudgier and brought back some, etc, etc ... One by one I made the slightest adjustments to the painting and magically it was transformed.

I hope I have captured the feeling of "Ever Lasting Curiosity". Now the real test is to see what her parents think about it?